Trademark Law and Naming Your Business organisation

A trademark is a sign, marker, or indicator used by an individual, concern, or system to identify a production or service as its own and to distinguish the product or service from those of its competitors. A business name generally can be protected as a trademark under federal and country trademark law.

Trademark law is designed to avert consumer confusion over the trademarks that businesses or other organizations apply in connection with their goods and services. Stated briefly, trademark law makes information technology unlawful for a business to use a trademark (due east.thousand., a slogan, a logo, a name) in connection with a good or service if that use is confusingly similar to some other business's use of a trademark. To come across how this works, imagine a consumer - Sally. If Sally buys a Dell computer, she tin be pretty sure that the computer was made by Dell Reckoner and nobody else. She can take Dell's reputation into account without worrying that a knockoff company is making shoddy computers with the Dell logo on them because trademark law prohibits that kind of confusing commercial action and it gives Dell the correct to sue for coin damages and an injunction if someone does it.

As a full general rule, if someone in a like field to yours is already using a item business or organization name, yous should not use it, nor should you use a name that would be confusingly like. Traditionally, there was nil to prevent someone from using a trademarked name in a completely unrelated field or manufacture (for instance, Delta Faucet and Delta Airlines) considering in that location was no possibility that consumers would confuse i for the other. However, the emergence of something called "anti-dilution" constabulary means that the owner of a "famous" trademark (it means pretty much what is sounds like) can prevent you from using it even in an unrelated industry. Therefore, it probably would not be a skilful idea to call a blog "Kodak News" or "McDonald'sBlog," unless your website is actually about Kodak or McDonald'due south (in which case you should read Using the Trademarks of Others section closely). Traditionally, the law besides permitted multiple companies to employ a given name in dissimilar geographical areas of the country, but the global nature of the Internet breaks downwardly the importance of geographical isolation and makes information technology more than likely that an Net use of a name or trademark could be disruptive regardless of where the brick-and-mortar businesses or organizations are physically located. Thus, you probably want to steer clear of a name that is the same or similar to a name used by someone else in your field, even if that person or system is located far away from yous.

The process of naming your business and securing trademark rights can be summarized in three bones points:

  1. Cull a proper noun for your business organisation. It should be distinctive, non generic, and should not be close to the name of anyone in a similar business concern. For details, please see the Naming Your Business: Choosing A Name Capable of Trademark Protection section.

  2. Search for others using your chosen proper name or like ones. You should search the Internet and federal and state trademark databases, at the very to the lowest degree. You should non utilise the proper noun if someone in your field or a similar one is using information technology. You may be able to use the name if someone in an unrelated field is using information technology, simply you should try not to utilise similar logos, styles, or colors. For details, delight come across the Naming Your Business: Searching for Trademarks of Others section.

  3. Consider registering your called business proper noun as a trademark. Registering a state and/or federal trademark has advantages. It is relatively cheap and easy to register a state trademark. Federal registration is more plush, just it is worth considering considering of its nationwide effect. For details, delight meet the Securing Trademark Rights: Ownership and Federal Registration department.

Jurisdiction:

  • United States

Subject Area:

  • Trademark
  • Business Formation